ARTS AND CULTURE SECRET SESSIONS Álanna Hammel attends one of the new Secret Sessions organised in aid of the Turkiye-Syria earthquake page 16
OPINION
IN OC F US
SPORT
Postgraduate Researchers Deserve Better
Lessons from Beyond: the Irish Diaspora
Has Irish Sport Overlooked its Racism?
The PWO explains the conditions facing postgraduate researchers and why they need a living wage and workers’ rights page 8 »
Gina Bagnulo explores the lessons that the Irish diaspora can provide to those looking at solutions for the migration crisis page 6 »
Charlie Moody-Stuart speaks to athletes and coaches about the struggles they have faced with racism in Irish sports, and the reasons why the issue has gone uninterrogated for so long page 12»
Volume XIV, Issue VI
Student Newspaper of the Year
TCDSU Publishes Open Letter Calling For Action on Accommodation Ailbhe Noonan Editor
T
rinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Gabi Fullam has published an open letter to the Provost calling for immediate and direct action to alleviate some of the burden of the accommodation crisis. The letter calls for an immediate freeze on accommodation and utility fees for the 2023/24 academic year, a review of the pricing of Trinity-owned accommodation, a commitment to working with TCDSU and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), clear and direct messaging to incoming students and an emergency accommodation protocol. “TCD Students’ Union (TCDSU) cannot look at the current landscape and say that Trinity College Dublin is acting with the best interests of students and staff at heart”, the letter opened. Fullam further elaborated that “despite the union’s best efforts in helping students find safe accommodation, we were alarmed at the sheer number of students at risk of dropping out, deferring, arriving in Dublin homeless, or commuting
long distances” and that “our Welfare & Equality Officer stressed that hybrid learning must be urgently expanded to support the hundreds – if not thousands – of students facing the choice of abandoning their education or becoming homeless during their studies”. “We are disappointed in College for not prioritising student welfare, and for continuing to emphasise (as per the Senior Lecturer’s email dated 26th of September) that ‘the University Calendar (Part II B, II. Academic Progress, paragraphs 17-25) makes clear what is expected of you in terms of attendance and the potentially very serious consequences of persistent or significant absence, which include refusal of permission to sit examinations and the requirement to repeat the year’”, she added. On the six demands presented in the letter, Fullam stated that “this is not the first time these asks have been brought to College, specifically having been presented
to Student Life Committee and various other College Committees by your union representatives” and that “the asks are reasonable and we will pursue escalated action should they not be fulfilled”. With regards to the pricing structure of Trinity-owned accommodation, especially accommodation on campus, Fullam suggested several options for reducing the cost for students. “The first option, and most ideal scenario, would be that Trinity accommodation prices are reduced across the board”, she said. “A second option would be to have a sliding scale of rent prices within each area of accommodation (i.e., within Front Square, within Goldsmith Hall etc.). Despite the different accommodation types being segmented by price, there is discretion within each accommodation of the different types of rooms available.” She added: Within a particular accommodation type a student can
receive a variation of accommodation set up (single bed, shared bathroom versus two single beds, ensuite etc.). A sliding scale could be enacted thereby allowing rooms with certain set-ups (single bed, shared bathroom) to be charged at a lesser rate than other rooms (two single beds, ensuite)”. The sliding scale model “would mean that students are not segmented based on their financial ability to afford particular accommodations, allowing for an inclusive accommodation experience for students”. She also stated that “College should be proactive in its own lobbying efforts to increase public funding for higher education, and to alleviate the cost of living crisis”. “Students will not support a college that does not prioritise housing justice”, the letter finished. “Escalated action will be taken if we do not receive further correspondence and a commitment to these demands being met by April 1st”.
PWOtest for PhD Rights
PHOTO BY GIULIA GRILLO FOR THE UNIVERSITY TIMES
PWOtest for PhD Rights: Hundreds of PhD researchers gathered in Trinity’s front square and marched down Nassau street to the Dáil to protest for better working conditions and a stipend in line with the national living wage.
Tuesday March 28th, 2023
Hundreds Protest for PhD Rights undreds of postgraduate researchers marched on the Dáil on Thursday to protest for an increase in the PhD stipend as well as employment rights under the law. The protest, organised by the Postgraduate Workers Organisation (PWO), the product of a recent merger of the Postgraduate Workers Alliance (PGWA) and the PhDs’ Collective Action Union (PCAU), saw hundreds gather in front square before marching down Nassau street to the Dáil with chants including “workers not students”, “Simon in your ivory tower, this is called people power” and “PWO power”. Speaking to The University Times at the protest, member of the Trinity branch of the PWO Shauna O’Donohoe said: “We’re here because we want to make it loud and clear to the government that we are workers. We’re not students”. “We do vital research, we demonstrate, we teach. We do supervisory work of undergraduate students and postgraduates. Yet the best case scenario is that we earn 22 per cent below minimum wage, which is €7.88 an hour and it’s not good enough”, she added. “We would like to see a stipend increase to a living wage”, she said, “but an employment-based model is the end goal because that unlocks all the issues faced by postgraduate researchers in terms of sick pay and PRSI contributions”. Also speaking to The University Times, PhD researcher in Maynooth University Bana Abu Zuluf added that “PWO was the reason why the national review for PhD supports actually started” but that they “have no guarantees that any of the recommendations will be implemented”. “We are aware that there is a review in action at the moment, but we are not
aware of any guarantees that the implementation will happen immediately for the start of the coming year. It is very important for us that the government and the Department of Higher Education knows that we are eager that this be implemented as soon as possible.” “PhDs are suffering”, she said. “They know the solution, it is recommended in the Fair Research Agreement that we submitted to them, so they should be aware of what our demands are. We are hoping that they agree to our demands and that we get workers rights and that they raise our stipends”. Eoghan Ross, a member of the National Committee of the PWO, expressed to this newspaper that “the state of things in Irish research are appallingly cruel and barbaric”. “There is absolutely no reason that people who are conducting essential research should be treated so poorly that they’re not even afforded what is deemed to be the minimum amount of money to survive.” He added: “Over the course of the pandemic, it was PhDs and postdoctoral researchers who were doing the vast majority of work in labs around Ireland. They were some of the first people who were brought back into the workforce because of the necessity that they had to understand what was going on, and they were not even being paid minimum wage”. “Back when the stipends were set in the early 2000s, the stipend was about on par with the living wage, which today we are vastly behind. If Ireland wants the research sector to continue to grow and thrive, they need to take us seriously, listen to what’s being said, and acknowledge that PhDs are driving our own paths, choosing our own research and learning things for ourselves”. “We are not being taught, we are not students, and we need to be acknowledged as such”, he finished. Addressing the crowd at the protest, member of the National Committee and the Trinity branch of the PWO Shaakya Anand-Vembar said that she is “tired of having two jobs on top of [her] PhD in order to pay
rent”. “I will not have any savings when I am done with my PhD, and what am I supposed to do then? As a non-EEA researcher here, I don’t have anywhere to go, I will not have anything to show for having spent five years doing research for this country.” “Simon Harris is going to hear us, he is going to hear our demands, and we will not stop until we have worker status for all PhDs”, she finished. A number of politicians also voiced their support for the protest including Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh, Labour Senator Alice-Mary Higgins and Trinity Senator Tom Clonan. Clonan emphasised his own difficult experiences with higher education institutions while doing his PhD after he faced allegations of falsifying his research due to its sensitive nature. “I was a PhD student, and I did my research into the experiences of women in the defence forces, and when I found the levels of sexual violence against women in the defence forces were shockingly high, I was accused by the military authorities of fabricating my resaerch findings”, he said. “I know what it’s like to be a PhD student who is working full time to make a contribution to science, to the humanities, to our society. The work that you do is absolutely invaluable.” “I did not enjoy the support of the university when I experienced that reprisal, so I feel very very strongly that all researchers absolutely require and deserve full workers rights”, he added. He also pointed out that the risk factors for sexual violence in higher education was the same as those for the military: “the risk factors for sexual violence in the military are exactly the same as those that exist in our university campuses. The disproportionate power relationship between you and the university is actually a risky environment for you to be in”. “There shouldn’t be any resistance whatsoever to your call for worker status”, he finished, pledging his support to the movement and the PWO’s call for workers rights.
Editor: Ailbhe Noonan Volume 14, Issue 6 ISSN: 2013-261X Phone: (01) 646 8431 Email: info@universitytimes.ie Website: universitytimes. ie
This newspaper is produced with the financial support of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union, but maintains a mutually agreed policy of editorial independence.
To contact The University Times write to: The Editor, The University Times, 6 Trinity College Dublin 2
Ailbhe Noonan Editor
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